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In Final Fantasy VIII gunblades have a blade with a firing mechanism built into the hilt, the barrel running inside the length of the blade. They are mostly used like normal swords, but triggering a round sends a shockwave through the blade as the weapon passes through an opponent to boost damage.

In Dissidia Final Fantasy, Squall Leonhart's use of the Revolver is refined beyond the normal slashes seen in Final Fantasy VIII, incorporating the use of the gunblade's recoil for a unique combat style. Using the Heel Crush and Rough Divide techniques, Squall triggers a round while holding the gunblade behind him, the recoil propelling him forward. Using the Solid Barrel and Beat Fang techniques, Squall thrusts the blade into the enemy, triggers a round (which also damages the enemy), and the recoil of the shot pushes the blade back, where Squall immediately thrusts again, repeating the process several more times. In Final Fantasy VIII Squall wields his gunblade two-handed, but in Dissidia Final Fantasy he often uses the weapon with one hand.

The combat styles demonstrated for gunblades capable of projectile firing (as seen in Final Fantasy XIII and the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII) alternate between ranged and melee combat with the favored style depending on the gunblade used. For example, the Velvet Nightmare is more adept for ranged combat than melee.

Final Fantasy XIV introduces several gun hybrid weapons, such as the gunhalberd, gunhammers, gunbaghnakhs and gunshields, which use a halberd, grappling weapon, hammer or shield bases, rather than a sword base.

The gunblade was designed by Tetsuya Nomura for Squall's weapon in Final Fantasy VIII with the aim to make the battles more dynamic, the players needing to press a button at the correct time to deal a critical hit, and to give Squall an iconic weapon. Nomura designed Squall's gunblade during a time he was into silver accessories,Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania, p.013 but on thinking back he says it has a rather odd appearance.[1]

For Final Fantasy XIII, the idea for Lightning to have a sword that can transform into a gun relates to the game's Eidolons, which can turn into vehicles, and the narrative's themes of transformation. Reasoning that if the summons could transform, the developers thought the weapons should be able to as well.[2]

Yazoo and Loz use two ornate gunblades called the Velvet Nightmare. Despite being officially considered gunblades, they don't appear to possess any notable cutting ability though they have a blade running along the top of the gun barrel, and a smaller blade along the bottom forming the front end of the trigger guard.

Various copies of Genesis wield gunblades, swords capable of firing bullets and rockets. They first appear during the attack on Junon and can be encountered on missions. There are two varieties of this gunblade, as its appearance degrades in the same manner as the clothing worn by the Genesis copies, thus more degraded copies use a variant with faded coloring.

The weapon's debut appearance, the gunblade is the weapon of choice for Squall Leonhart and his rival, Seifer Almasy. It is a sword with a firing mechanism, such as a pistol (as with Seifer's Hyperion), or revolver (as with Squall's weapons), which serves as the blade's hilt. Despite its name, it cannot be used as a gun, meaning it does not fire projectiles, and can therefore only be used in melee combat, making it more like a gun supplementing a sword than a blade supplementing a firearm, e.g. a bayonet on a rifle. The firing of the gunblade's rounds induces a tremor in the blade causing it to deal additional damage to whatever it strikes.

In battle, one must press while the party member is striking to pull the trigger. If successful, the hit will be critical, multiplying the damage by x1.5 (as opposed to x2 for regular criticals). Triggering the gunblade is the only means of performing critical hits for its users. With Seifer, using this technique is slightly more difficult than with Squall because he attacks faster. Squall and Seifer are the only ones who can use a gunblade in combat, while Laguna Loire uses one in a dream sequenceminigame, and mentions he trained with one in his early years as a Galbadian soldier.

Gunblades have 255% accuracy, making misses impossible even with the Blind status.

There are seven gunblade models available for Squall plus the model used by Seifer.

Gilgamesh has a knock-off of the Revolver gunblade among his collection of legendary weapons. Like his swords, it is slightly different from the original, having an image of a chocobo on the blade instead of Griever and lacking the chain.

The gunblade (known as dualweapon in Japan) transforms between gun-mode and blade-mode. Lightning uses her gunblade for both melee and long-range, and during the battle against Havoc Skytank, she only uses the gun mechanism as the target is otherwise out of range. Lightning's gunblade has a holster that swings behind her for the weapon to rest. In the web novelization Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-, Sergeant Major Amodar mentions that Lightning's initial weapon, the Blazefire Saber, is a weapon only used by the most skilled soldiers.

Lightning wields the gunblade Overture bestowed to her by the goddess Etro. The weapon goes unnamed until the sequel. The gunblade, like her previous weapon, has engraved writing in Etro script: Gladius in turba aetern a induratus vincula inserepabilia rum, which translates to "The blade forged in everlasting chaos shall cleave the unbreakable chain".

While her previous weapon was kept in a holster slung from her belt, Lightning's new gunblade can be summoned and dispelled whenever she desires. The Blazefire Saber returns in DLC, wielded by the version of Lightning experienced in the Coliseum. As in the previous game, gunblades will only use the gun mechanism when fighting an out-of-range enemy, such as Chaos Bahamut in Academia 500AF.

Lightning can obtain the Blazefire Saber and Overture, provided the player has a save file from Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2. All weapons are close-range, and thus the gunblades only function as swords.

A weapon of advanced technology, the gunblade is used by the Garlean centurions. The weapon is an ingenious integration of sword and firearm into a single instrument and is equally capable of dispatching enemies at close-quarters and at range.

Gaius Van Baelsar wields a gunblade, the Heirsbane, while Nael Van Darnus uses a gunhalberd variant, called the Bradamante, said to be named for a warrior maiden he killed. This might allude to the knight Bradamante, one of the greatest female knights presented in western literature; as an expert fighter, she wielded a magical lance that unhorsed anyone it touched. Cid nan Garlond also wields a custom unnamed gunblade. In "Dawn of a New Day," the Warrior of Light receives a vision from the Echo concerning Zenos yae Galvus and Asahi sas Brutus, showing that Zenos also used a gunblade, but discarded it in favor of a Doman katana, awed by its style.

The three main antagonists encountered during the player's conflict with the Garlean Empire wield instruments built on the basics of gunblades. Nero Tol Scaeva uses the standard blade and a variant shaped like a hammer, called Mjolnir. Livia Sas Junius wields gunbaghnakhs called Aglaea welded to her gauntlets. Rhitahtyn Sas Arvina wields two gunshields mounted in his arms, called Tartarus.

The Blazefire Saber from Final Fantasy XIII appears as Lightning's weapon in the event Lightning Strikes, and is also obtainable by the player as a reward for the event, though it is considered a Gladiator arm and thus has no gun mode. It still folds up when sheathed, however.

Lightning's Blazefire Saber is a DLC weapon for Noctis. It is a short sword, and thus operates the same as a regular sword; the gun mechanic is not used. Initially, it was one of the few weapons whose model was used for hanging animations; point-warping with most weapons simply showed the default Broadsword model. This was updated in a patch, and now all short sword models appear in hanging animations.

Squall Leonhart wields his Revolver in combat and switches to the Lion Heart in his EX Mode. Outside of his Renzokuken EX Burst, the player cannot trigger rounds manually. Instead, the mechanism is incorporated as part of Squall's attack style, called Relentless Revolver. When attacking Squall uses the recoil from a triggered round to drive the blade back after attacking and quickly move into position for a second attack, allowing him to use powerful multi-hit combos that hit several times in rapid succession. Because of the way gunblade is used to achieve optimal performance, the weapon is considered an old-fashioned and difficult to use in comparison to regular swords.

As a Mime, Bartz uses Squall's Revolver in some of his attacks. Manikins of the two use crystalline versions of the Revolver, colored respectively to match their user.

Lightning wields the Blazefire Saber in battle and exchanges it for the Omega Weapon in her EX Mode. As in Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning uses both the weapon's sword and gun forms, quickly switching between the two while attacking to combine close and long-range tactics, such as firing a barrage of gunfire then diving in for a sword slash. Squall continues to use the Revolver and Lion Heart, and Bartz uses both the Revolver and Blazefire Saber when performing some attacks, but he only uses the sword form of the Blazefire Saber. Manikins of the three use crystalline forms of their users' respective gunblades in battle.

Gunblades appear as weapon skins. Squall can equip the Revolver, Cutting Trigger or Twin Lance; and Lightning can equip the Blazefire Saber, Omega Weapon and Overture. Lightning's play-style no longer uses the "gun" mechanic, only the "blade".

Since Bartz's moveset has been changed based on the job system of Final Fantasy V, he cannot copy Squall's gunblade and attacks.

Squall, Lightning and Seifer can use gunblades, and each weapon can only be used by their original owner (for example: Squall with the Revolver, Lightning with the Blazefire Saber and Seifer with the Hyperion).

Several gunblades from previous entries in the series appear as weapons of the sword class, such as Lightning's Blazefire Saber or Squall Leonhart's Revolver. Classes that get a bonus when wielding swords, such as the Red Mage or Dark Knight, will also get a bonus when using a gunblade. Gunblades are typically powerful weapons and most of them rank as SR or SSR weapons.

Wutai troopers wield halberds with gun barrels built into the handles, and can flip them around to fire bursts of gunfire. The halberd comes in several color schemes to match the user's armor, and stronger Wutai soldiers wield halberds with additional reinforcements to the weapon.

Rosso the Crimson's weapon is a bow-like double-bladed sword with a gun built into its handle. Weiss the Immaculate wields a pair of rifles with katanas built into the barrels. At least one of the Restrictors uses a pair of automatic sub-machine guns with blade attachments.

The Ras Algethi gun appears to be based on the Final Fantasy VIII Lion Heart with aspects of the Revolver's design. Though classified as a gun and thus only being used in ranged combat, it bears a large blue blade running along the length of the barrel, a wing design on the hammer, and a handle similar to the Revolver with a chain and wing emblem attached to the end.

Squall, under the name Leon, uses his trademark Revolver, sans the Griever etching as it had in Final Fantasy VIII. When charged up, the Revolver will emit an aura of blue energy, making it similar to the Lion Heart. Two Keyblades are associated with Leon, the Lionheart and the Sleeping Lion, the former taking its name from the gunblade and the latter being based on the Revolver in design.

A gunblade appears as a weapon that the GOLEM type character No. 9 uses. Upon his defeat Aya Brea can use the weapon as one of her secret weapons if certain objectives are met. It is aptly named "gunblade".

In the fanmade CG movie series, Dead Fantasy, Rinoa Heartilly wields a black gunblade called the Vanishing Star. It features a revolver gun component with dual triggers and a blade with a white feather and the words "Vanishing Star" inscribed upon it. An actual gun barrel atop the weapon's blade, as well as exhaust ports on the blade itself, suggest it can be used as a ranged weapon. On said gun barrel the words "All Existence Denied" are inscribed: a quote of Ultimecia in the final battle of Final Fantasy VIII. Rinoa wields it one-handed in a similar style to the Chinese Dao sword. When not in use it has a belt holster it can attach to on the wielder's hip.

In the Dion Rogers' Rinoa concept design, she wields a gunblade that has a shotgun handle and a Griever etching on the blade. It has been dubbed the "shotgunblade" by Dion Roger when commenting on the art's design.

The Blazefire Saber in a PS3 ad.

Lightning's Blazefire Saber is on a weapons rack among other weapons and guns in a live action video commercial for PlayStation, titled "Michael" - PS3 Long Live Play. Lightning herself is listening to a story told by Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.

The "Igknight" archetype of monsters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game wield gunblades based on various types of real-life firearm with blade attachments. "Igknight Squire" in particular wields a weapon that highly resembles Squall's Revolver. The Japanese text of the cards explicitly refers to the weapons of the Igknights as gunblades.

One equippable item in the highly popular PC MOBA League of Legends is the Hextech Gunblade, which bears some similarities in appearance to Squall's Lion Heart but has a slightly larger and aqua green blade.One of the items required to create it is the Hextech Revolver.

There's also a piece of equipment in the popular Japanese MMORPG Phantasy Star Online 2 called the "Gunslash". A balanced weapon, it can be used for both melee and ranged attacks, though the skills associated with it are mostly melee accompanied by a gunshot. It is a default weapon for beginners, but there are also stronger and rarer variants.

The character Fie Claussell from The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel series uses dual gun-daggers as her weapons.

In the anime Isekai wa Smartphone to tomo ni, the protagonist Mochizuki Tōya uses a shape-shifting gun/sword as his secondary weapon.

While it is assumed the gunblade models use specific bullets/shells to fire, only one example of a "gunblade bullet" has been shown in Final Fantasy VIII during the game's introductory credits.

Some gunblade models resemble the real-world pistol swords; weapons consisting of various swords with pistols or revolvers built into the hilt, originating from medieval Europe and the U.S Civil War in the 18th-century. Billy Kid actually used a knife with a hilt shaped like a gun's, called a knife gun.

An ability called Gunblade is used by Squall in Chocobo Racing, allowing him to use a Turbo Boost until he reaches first place.

The gunblade is mentioned in one of the possible questions in Captain Cryptic's Confounding Quiz in Final Fantasy XIII-2. The question, "Which celebrated movie introduced the gunblade, a now-popular toy among kids?" can be answered with "The Sorceress's Knight". This answer alludes to a movie in Final Fantasy VIII where Laguna Loire held a staring role as the knight Zefer wielding a Revolver gunblade.